Beyond the Glowing Ruins
by CobraJc
Summary: After World War III. This is what the world is.


Beyond the Glowing Ruins By: Joshua C. Coyle  
  
Introduction  
  
As I sit here I can almost see my beautiful home planet, reducing itself to cosmic dust. The beginning is always the best so that is where I will start. My name is Joshua Castoson. I am.was a major in the American Alliance National Army. This whole conflict started over a century ago. It is the year 2104. In 2001, two terrorist controlled airplanes destroyed the World Trade Center. These attacks were linked back to the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. As retribution the former United States bombed bin Laden's home in Afghanistan. At the time the US thought they had won. They couldn't have been more wrong. Within two years the remainder of bin Laden's terrorists annihilated New York City with a small nuclear device. In response the US launched all of its nuclear forces towards the only nuclear holdout on Earth, Russia. The Russians responded as well and the world, as it was then, was destroyed. Enough of the explanation. Our story begins in 2099, beyond the glowing ruins.  
  
Chapter 1: Jihad'!  
  
In the annals of history the Islamic Republic's Jihad against the European Federation is the scariest. The Muslims were fanatics and cared only for "the correct way," which means, their way. Well, the Europeans didn't want their precious land taken away so they called upon the American Alliance for help. My unit, 3rd Impact Hover tank Division: The Jaguars, was sent to provide temporary relief for the Europeans. On their way back to the US was the 9th Gravship Squadron, The Flying Fangs, and the 145th Impact Rifle Regiment, The Crusaders. However, they were in the Alaskan Training Area, and we were in the Soviet Territories. We had to march across four thousand miles of snow, ice, and mountains and, of course, Muslims. When I was young I had really wanted to go to the Islamic Republic to see the beauty that they had there. The towering monuments to Allah, the gorgeous palaces, the awesome expanse of desert and farmland. That was before the Jihad'. Now, there is nothing that I wish to see there for the only way I would get to see it is if we invade. Unfortunately that is now very likely. The Europeans have declared the Islamic Republic to be their new target for expansion. I tire of trying to keep up with the alliances of today. It is so hard to remember it all. When we first heard of the Jihad' we wished for the old United Nations to stop it. Sadly, the United Nations was destroyed in nuclear fire during the Third World War. Nowadays we have nothing. Hope is all that keeps us going. Especially in the "march" through the mountains of Akjimas, formerly known as Afghanistan.  
  
Chapter 2: The Mountains of Afghanistan  
  
As we began the "march" through Akjimas, I began to wonder about something. The Islamic Republic declared Jihad', Holy War, upon the Europeans. What had they done to deserve it? Acted normal? Been quiet? Lost their aggressiveness? Nobody knew the answer. Our trip was rather uneventful until we got to Aloska village, in the Tora Bora region. The second we entered Aloska strange things started happening. Villagers carried around old laser guns and gave us strange glances. It was like we weren't welcome there. If you could have seen those villagers you would have been scared, they gave us glares that seemed to slice through us, and our hover tanks, at the same time. The way they clutched their weapons told us to put more pressure on the throttle, if we wanted to survive. In a village on the borders of the Soviet Territories we expected guards and defensive outposts and camps. We saw none of these. In the middle of Aloska we saw a statue. At the time I didn't know who it was but know I now. It was a statue of Osama bin Laden. In one hand he held an American flag, in flaming tatters, and in the other hand a nuclear bomb. On his face he had a smile of delight and at his feet, this was the scariest of all, were the World Trade Center's twin towers, the Pentagon and a bald eagle with a knife in it. It was about then that one of my tank-mates got mad and shot the statue. When the shells hit there was a large boom accompanying a bright flash of light. Windows shattered and people screamed. But when the dust cleared the statue was still standing. Only this time it looked different. This time it held an American Alliance flag in burning tatters and the numbers on the nuke were slowly counting down to zero.  
  
Chapter 3: Blood of the Alliance  
  
When I saw those numbers I put my foot on the pedal and sped through street after street of people arming themselves with anything they could find. I could hear the other hover tanks behind me. We shot out of that village like a bullet from a gun. We didn't stop for about four and a-half hours. When we finally stopped we spotted an old Soviet compound from World War Three. It was there that we decided to stop and take a rest. Little did we know that we weren't the only ones utilizing that base. When we got there the commander decided to find a place to relieve himself while we set up camp. I should have noticed it when he had been gone over three hours. If I had, then what came next might never have happened. Right before dinner we heard a loud scream from nearby but before we could grab our side arms or get to our tanks they were upon us. We had somehow been surrounded while we had set up camp. Our attackers fired at everything that moved, especially us. I had gotten behind a broken piece of the compound wall when the guy next to me got shot, from behind! As I turned around I saw our commander standing there with a pulse rifle in his hands. When he saw me he lined me up for his next shot but I was quicker. I pulled off six quick shots before I got hit in the arm. The commander was less fortunate. He took two of my shots to his left leg, one to his right leg, two to his right arm and one to his right hand. As I was getting back up he walked up to me, took a piece of the old flagpole and struck me with it. Right before he did this he said, "You'll thank me for this." I lost consciousness after that.  
  
Chapter 4: Brotherhood of Lies  
  
I came to inside a dark cell. As I looked around I saw that only eight of us survived the attack. Eight out of a division of over four hundred men and women. I was still in shock at the betrayal of the commander. I had known the man over ten years. We had fought together in the Battle of Orlando. I had never thought he would turn out as a traitor. The thought made my blood boil. After the sun came up I asked the other survivors what had happened and their accounts were the same. The traitor had clubbed them all. Apparently our tanks had not been destroyed or damaged. Nor had our spare uniforms and weapons been damaged. It seemed like our attackers were planning to use our equipment to masquerade as an American Alliance hover tank unit. I was about to ask what the others opinions were when a guard came up to the cell. I was planning on rushing him and stealing his weapon until I felt the slight vibration at the back of my neck. It was a Shocker, a device that would render a person unconscious upon activation. The guard smiled and pressed a button on the wall. I felt a sharp sting in my neck and blacked out.  
  
Chapter 5: Escape to Nowhere  
  
As I came to, I found myself lying on the ground in the forest behind the compound. Beside me there was a pack that had in it what looked like an old GPS unit it from the Third war, it was nowhere as accurate as the ones we had today (its accuracy was only about 3 inches) but it would be good enough to get me out of here. The pack also had about 12 days worth of rations, a little map and a letter, from the traitor.  
  
Dear Major Wiggin:  
  
I regret to inform you that I have been captured and made to work for our enemy. I may be working for them, but I am still loyal to the alliance. The GPS unit I have enclosed with this letter, and a map with a contact on it who will help you get back to the states, and also enough supplies and gear to get you there, but you must leave now, before 3 o'clock For that is when your execution is going to be, and also the earliest time you will be missed. So please go now, tell the alliance what is happening. Save yourself and the world.  
  
Yours very truly,  
  
Commander Anderson  
  
I didn't waste any time for it was almost 2 o'clock. I picked up the pack, and walked away.  
  
My journey to the contact was short and uneventful. It only took my about 3 days to reach him. After that he smuggled me across the Bering Strait and into Alaska. From there I was on my own, but I was on my home soil so I felt safe, and I knew where I was going. I headed strait for the nearest Alliance base in the region, which just happened to be in Anchorage. When I reached the base they demanded my identification. But my captors had taken my ID card when I had been captured. It was lucky for me that the Alliance required all it's soldiers to be retina scanned before they went into battle, or I would have been shot on site. After I explained my situation to the commanders of the base I was immediately rushed to Alliance Command in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There I explained the situation to the generals who decide if nations rise or fall. They said it was irrelevant; I pleaded and argued that it wasn't, but one of them just shoved me aside and walked over to a computer terminal. He typed in a few commands, and a hologram popped up in the middle of the room, and a briefing started playing out.  
  
Chapter 6: The Briefing  
  
"Congratulations heroes!" a computerized speaker somewhere exclaimed, "You have been selected to leave this war-ravaged world and journey to a new home on a far off planet. It will be a difficult journey, you, may not even reach a new home, you may just simply die in space, but if that happens, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you died trying to save humanity from it's self. You and a million others will leave this world in a spaceship designed by all the nations of the world. It was a challenge to get everyone cooperating, but we did it!" the computer started laughing for some reason, but then abruptly stopped. I looked over at the general.  
  
"I hate that thing, it's so humorous, and this is so serious, I can't stand it!" yelled the general, "Well, so now you know. Now you know why that sneak attack is irrelevant. The ship is leaving in 3 days. Nothing that happens on Earth now matters anymore. Well, you haven't had any training, but you know. SO we either kill you, or take you with, which would you prefer?"  
  
"I don't think there is much of a choice, I think I'll come with." I had so many questions, "what can I take with? When do I get to meet the rest of the crew?"  
  
All the answers came quickly, "You can bring everything you can fit in the storage container we provide you." They were so upfront. That it shocked me to see my quarters on the ship. It was a glass coffin!  
  
"So you're already planning for the worst, huh? You're having everyone sleep in coffins?"  
  
"No, no, no. You see you're sleeping there, in cryostasis. You can't very well stay alive for the next 5 centuries without being in one of these. You'll go to sleep, and wake up at the new world. We don't know where it is yet, but we have already named it Gaya."  
  
I glanced into the tube next to mine, and was shocked to see a beautiful woman lying there. She was already in stasis.  
  
"Her name is Valentine."  
  
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Chapter 7: A New Home  
Now we have reached the present, I think that that is self- explanatory, so I will leave it at that and continue my story.  
  
Now there she was, floating deep in the heart of space was humanities greatest achievement. A gigantic starship that carried with it the last few remnants of the human race. The Earth, now, long since dead and perished by humanity's wars and our inability to agree or compromise on anything, was no longer capable of supporting human life. The ship, the Ark, humanities' last great hope for a future beyond the 21st century now sped quietly through the empty blackness of space in search of a planet on which to spread it's precious cargo of life. All life which remained of the Earth. Plants and animals, birds and fish, cats and dogs, and most importantly humans. All the creatures that had been born of Earth. But they all lay dormant now, frozen in the deep sleep of cryostasis, in order to keep them alive for the centuries it would take for them to reach a new home, a new Earth, a new beginning for the human race.  
  
Some 650 years and 25,000 light-years after our journey began our hopes were finally fulfilled. We stumbled across a "Menchara" class planet, which is one capable of supporting human life. We came across it quite by accident, if it had not been for the freak black hole (the first one discovered by humanity) that had pulled us off course by just a few degrees. But those few degrees were just enough to point our telescopes at the planet, the "Menchara" class planet, and also our new home.  
  
The main computer proceeded to revive the command staff, the ones who would survey the new planet, and make the vital decision that would decide if this was going to be our new home, or if we would be locked away for another 6 centuries. After about a week they determined that the planet was indeed safe and began the lengthy process of reviving the rest of the crew. They were people of all nations, of all colors, of all religions, and of all walks of life. People of all professions, and of all ranks. We were all equal now, men and women alike, we were all the same. There were no Americans, no Russians, and no Chinese, only humans, formerly of planet Earth. We had come here to farm, to build, and to begin anew. We had been given a second chance, and little did we know that there were those who would soon try to take that chance away.  
  
I was jolted awake, out of my 650-year slumber. I couldn't see through the dark blue sludge of the cryogell, which had kept me alive the past half eon. I felt warmness beneath me as the heating coils that had been dormant for so many years slowly brought my body back to life. Soon after about 20 minutes the coils shut off and the cryogell began to drain. I heard a pop and felt a gust a cool, damp air as the lid of my tank slowly slid open, and I took my first breath of air, now 6 ½ centuries old.  
  
All around me others were waking from their own slumbers. I dragged myself out of my tank, slowly, painfully. The electro-shock therapy that had been given to my throughout the voyage had not completely rid me of the atrophied now plaguing my body.  
  
The intercom suddenly came to life as the captain began to address the crew, "All hands, please report to the Main Deck. We have reached Gaya."  
  
A cheer rose up through the ship. After half an eon, after we had left all or the pain and suffering behind, we were finally ready to start over, to begin anew. At least that's what we thought.  
  
The landing was uneventful, and we proceeded to set up our colony, we planted our fields and herded our cattle. That was how life was for the next 2 years or so. Then as if rising out of the grave, people started arguing and fighting. Then one day about half of the population broke off and declared themselves an independent nation! We were supposed to have had left all of that behind. And slowly "humanity" was broken up and once again the Russians emerged, and the Chinese emerged, and the Americans emerged.  
  
It soon became clear that we had indeed not left our past behind, so once again war broke out between all of humanity's factions. But, this time it was no ordinary war. You see we had not known what was out there, beyond our own small little planet, we had not only accomplished the impossible by building the Ark, but we had also accomplished the impossible by improving our weapons by a thousand fold. We had not only made the Ark strong enough to reach Gaya, but we had also made it powerful enough to fight its way there. There were slug weapons, laser weapons, and nuclear weapons strong enough to destroy and entire planet!  
  
The Factions, now called nations rushed franticly to the Ark in order to seize what they could from it, and deprive the enemy of what they could not. The nation that came out on top was the one with the most scientists, the one with the most organization, and the one with the most loyal citizens. I was one of them. We saw the way the tide was flowing, we saw that we would soon destroy this world to, not by accident this time, but because we couldn't learn to share.  
  
It was fortunate for us, the citizens of "The Coalition of Humanity," that we had seized the Ark in the uprising, and had raised it off the war- ravaged world. And there we worked, for 6 long years, ferrying materials to the Ark, preparing it for the second long voyage yet to come. But this time carrying only those truly loyal to humanity, and with it's interest at heart.  
  
After we had finished refitting the Ark, now renamed the Phoenix, we brought all of our belongings, all of our animals, and all of our children up to the Phoenix.  
  
There were protests and demands from the other nations that we should take them with us, but we refused. They would only serve to divide us once more. We left orbit and once again set out on a mission to save humanity from itself. We had been given a third chance, and we were determined not to let it go.  
  
The Phoenix once again floated through the empty void of space, this time with only a tenth of it's original cargo, a mere 100,000 souls, all determined to save the human race. We had all sworn to uphold the principles on which this mission had started. We had all locked ourselves back into the cold sleep of cryostasis for what was to be another long voyage.  
  
So here we all lay, asleep, waiting to stumble across a third home for the human race. 


End file.
